Tag Archives: interactive floor plans

The New Information Age

We are just beginning to wrap our heads around the vast amounts of information available to us in this new information age. With computer processor speed doubling every 18 months along with increasing storage capacity, we can afford the means to assess data in its entirety. This phenomena is known as “Big Data” which refers to our new found ability to crunch a vast quantity of information, analyze it instantly, and draw some astonishing conclusions.

Collecting information is just the beginning of creating the ability of artificial intelligence as we saw way back in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey

HAL 9000 (a computer) decides what’s best…………….

Gone Are The Days Of Traditional Statistical Analysis

In the old days, statisticians would have a hypothesis and test it with a random sample of a population. The greater the size sample of the population being measured, the more accuracy of the sample being a representation of the entire populace. This would reinforce the notion of “causality”, that being, we as humans have a yearning desire to try to understand the world around us. What causes things to happen? For example, say we have a theory that someone buys a home because they eat eggs in the morning. ¬†As you can imagine, there’s a fair amount of people who get up in the morning, fix themselves some eggs for breakfast and go off into their day. And, of people who purchase homes, it can be said that there may be a high degree that they also had eggs for breakfast. Thus, eating eggs causes home sales? So, is it realistic to prove this¬†preposterous¬†hypothesis¬†with a statistical analysis? However, if one was to gather a random sample of new homeowners, there would be proof that would suggest that egg consumption yields new home buying behavior. This type analysis is known as causality as opposed to correlation and takes the form of trying to understand a phenomena, coming up with a hypothesis, and proving it through statistic analysis.

Causality vs. Correlation Analysis

Some things are best left to try not to understand

Within a correlation model of understanding, we are able to assess just pure raw data and observe correlations¬†without¬†trying to understand the cause of an event. What this enables businesses to do, is to view highly correlated events and capitalize from their relatedness. In other words, if a given situation¬†yields¬†outcomes with a high degree of correlation, then why bother trying to understand why?

In the book, Big Data – A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think the author explains how retailers are just beginning to understand their abilities to assess data for what its worth and understand the correlations of relationships. An illustration of this is how¬†Walmart¬†now sells Pop Tarts during times that precede a natural disaster. They observed that during times where people are preparing for hurricanes and/or a natural disaster, that not only did typical disaster items such as batteries, flash lights, and water sales spike but so did Pop Tarts sales. They then began to merchandise disaster related items and Pop Tarts in stores in order to make it easier for their customers to shop. Now who would have¬†hypothesized¬†that Pop Tarts would be a necessary item for preparing for a Tornado or Hurricane? In hind sight, it maybe easy to explain because of the product ease of use for their customers. However, if one removes the urge to try to understand what causes certain correlated events and just accepts the raw data and that these correlations exist, then a new era of marketing has begun using this strategy.

However, there are many ways to view the world, and one must be cautious as they develop ways to assess given circumstances of events. “Big Data” as some may have us to believe is not the cure all, but can be used in significant ways to observe the patterns of our society. This can be another great tool in ones tool box to be able to predict market trends, product sales, and any other activities if the right data is obtainable and accurate.(Read More – Big Data News Roundup: Correlation vs. Causation)

We are very pleased to be getting the notoriety of our new HTML5 Interactive Floor plans! As we approach the International Builders’ Show this month, it’s nice to be able to have articles such the one written by ConstrucTECH (click on picture below for full article):

Engaging At A Prospective Level – Creating Dialogue

Dialogue marketing is a term that has emerged in recent years to describe companies’ efforts to engage willing consumers in an ongoing dialogue to create lasting relationships.For example, based on data, marketers target groups of consumers who exhibit a propensity to buy and invite them to connect with the company in a variety of ways. The engagement process provides value to both the consumer and the company. Marketers use these opportunities as automated data collection points. The companies use the data to further customize their marketing messages and personalize the experience for their consumers and market segments. In exchange for sharing opinions, buying patterns, product preferences, etc., consumers receive perks such as discounts, tips, and free trials as well as appropriate and valuable messaging from the company.

History of Dialogue Marketing

Dialogue marketing can track its roots to permission marketing and relationship marketing, and is similar to engagement marketing and double-loop marketing. A direct reaction to traditional push marketing, the goal of dialogue marketing is to develop ongoing and long-lasting relationships with the right consumers.

Dialogue marketing is based on the premise that engaging consumers in relevant and personal conversations is more important than ever. As technology arms consumers with new ways to ignore messaging, disconnect from branding and disengage from the marketplace altogether; marketers believe that connecting on a personal level with consumers who do or will buy because the company resonates with them helps companies differentiate themselves and stand out as leaders in the marketplace.

Gone Are The Days Of Push Marketing

Online Engagement

When one can provide content online that is of value to a prospective client, they tend to be more inclined to be willing to exchange more information about themselves and their interests. Now more than ever, we have to differentiate ourselves from the sea of information that is online. For example, in order to capture any interest at all, a website must be able to convey the message of a company’s product or services with in six seconds of viewing. On top of that, there needs to be interactive triggers that will engage the viewer. This can as simple as more detailed product information as a link, or as complex as using an interactive floor planning tool.

Click On Image To Go To Space Planner

We have witnessed but a vast many changes in the way we go to market, from the push marketing styles of the 1950′s to one of engagement through the use of many forms of today’s media. The key to reaching today’s consumer is to first have a product that is right for the targeted demographics. However, this is only the first step of a well thought out market strategy. Part of any successful marketing plan is to be able to have an engaging process that begins the critical first steps of building the initial relationship. This means a marketing plan that has key ingredients which will provide value-based online content to begin the all important beginning steps of the customer relationship – the dialogue.

Combine Traditional Media with an Interactive Digital Experience

Today we’re seeing a combination of forces merging into a singular platform that allows for a prospective homeowner to be more informed, engaged, and excited about their new home ¬†even before they set foot in the community. With the varied tools available online from social media to interactive floor plans, one can easily get a fairly good grasp of a the type of home they are interested in purchasing. What can trigger this interest is the use of traditional media formats such as T.V., Radio, Print, and Outdoor. However traditional campaigns can be tricky in measuring the return on investment.

With a Hybrid Marketing approach, greater emphasis is placed on the reliance of a prospect seeking key informational components of the buying process. These components can be related to the geographical area, community, plat map, floor plans, and other critical areas to be considered when making a home purchase decision. One of these areas would be the actual floor plan selection and the associative options with that plan. Interactive Floor Plans (IFP) is a perfect way to engage a prospective homeowner online to make various option selections at their leisure. ¬†In making these selections, the prospective client can save their favorite floor plans to their e-mail address which in turn begins the Hybrid Marketing Cycle from a Pull Marketing style approach.

As the saved floor plan is sent to the prospect’s email address, a copy of the saved floor plan is sent to the builder for future reference. Not only does this allow for a better prepared sales agent, but a builder can begin to assess through¬†analytics¬†which types of floor plans and options are right for a given community. With this data, a builder can optimize the right floor plan / option mix in a community and cut costly plan maintenance for under performing floor plans.

Here’s where the magic takes place! Instead of being handed a registration card as way to gain access into the model park, and agent is already prepared with the floor plans that a prospect has saved. If this is not the case, then an agent can walk the future homeowner through the Customer Discover Center. This is a large format presentation (1080p) on a wide screen of the community, site plan, interactive floor plans, key builder information, and more.

The prospect will be given the opportunity to view various floor plans and options. Upon various selections, the agent will then be able to print a customized eBrochure for the client to place into the Hybrid Kit. Of course, before the customized floor plan is printed, the agent asks if the prospetive homeowner would like to have the floor plan saved to their email address. In which case, an eLead has been entered into the sales agent’s system. This same saved floor plan can be forwarded by the prospective homeowner to family and friends which in turn can create referral sales.

With the Customer Discovery Center, Interactive Floor Plans, and Print On Demand, home builders can provide a very engaging platform for prospective home owners that allow for them to control the buying process. Gone are the days of push marketing that relies on factoring a small percentage of success of a massive expensive ad campaign. Now we can rely on solid data of our target market, and focus our valuable marketing resource dollars upon those who are truly interested in purchasing our products.

What can we learn from the retail industry and apply to building homes?

What’s in a bar code?

We may not wonder any more why bar codes are on packaging as we shop at a store, but in reality this way of information tracking is relatively new. ¬†In June of 1974, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a bar code included was a packet of Wrigley’s gum.

The process is relatively simple, in that an optical reader device scans an item and the associative data is then pass onto the logistical parties in order to keep the store shelves filled. However, having proper formatting of data and agreed upon industry standards took some 20+ years. What retailers soon discovered, is that the more integrated their supply chains were with information, the less errors were experienced, quicker fulfillment times of orders occurred, and less man-hours incurred per dollar of revenue was achieved. In other words, they developed a very highly efficient supply chain model with a single pull-through triggering mechanism, that being the bar code.

Single Trigger Event Pull-Through Model for Retailers

Consolidation of Retailers In The 1980′s

As we entered the second decade of bar code scanning and single trigger envent tracking, Walmart had revenues of 1 billion, and 276 outlets in 11 states. Today, Walmart has sales of $421 billion and 8,970 locations worldwide. This type of unprecidented growth came from geographical expansion, and at the expense of smaller retailers that were not able to track their sales as efficiently. Mass retailers such as Walgreens and Target, realized the power of information tracking and automating their processes with Electronic Data Exchanges (EDI) in order to conduct more transactions with less resources. ¬†In fact, the reality is that we are able to sustain a standard of living much higher than pre-1980′s due to a highly mechanized means of¬†delivering¬†products to market.

Measuring Productivity of the Construction Industry*

The productivity of the¬†construction industry, as measured by constant contract dollars of new construction work per hourly work hour, has gradually declined (with some modest exceptions) over the past 40 years at an average compound rate of -0.59%/year (see Figure 1). This is particularly alarming when compared to the increasing labor productivity in all non-farm industries, which have experienced an increasing productivity of 1.77%/year over the same time period. Over the past decade, this trend has slightly improved but the decline in construction labor productivity relative to the rest of the industry has continued.

This is a serious problem which indicates that over the past 40 years, construction projects have required significantly more field work hours per dollar of contract. In other words, the¬†construction industry seriously lags other industries in developing and applying labor saving ideas and in finding ways to substitute equipment for labor. While there are a number of construction tasks that have been made more productive through the use of labor saving equipment, it is clear that, looking at the whole industry, there is a significant productivity problem. Why is this the case and what can be done about it? First, let’s review the productivity data shown in Figure 1. ¬† (read more)

Figure 1. Labor productivity index for US¬†construction industry and all non-farm industries from 1964 through 2003.

Where is The Single Trigger Event (Bar Codes) for Home Building?

Now, the next question is where is my bar code for building the home? If that’s your question, then we’re beginning to make great strides into the next evolution of building homes. This would not have been possible if it were not for the advent of just a few key ingrediants:

Internet

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Application Programming Interface (API)

Web Based Store Front

The model is relatively simple, in that all information for building the home must be linked to any and all retail areas for a home builder. This means that data that is incurred in the design process must be associated with the builder’s marketing materials on the web (ie store front). Think of it if you will, the home builder’s web site is their retail store and that any purchasing activities will need to be done in their store. Once a customer buys the product, then the needed data is then exported through API’s into the appropriate areas to fulfill the transaction.

This model does not mean that builders are ¬†going to do away with sales agents, models, and other traditional areas of home building. What is does mean, is that the information that is developed from Building Information Modeling (BIM), can now be linked to web-based interfaces such as floor plan options, Sales CRM, builders suppliers, and others. The single trigger event pull-through strategy (ie bar code), allows for all transactions to be interconnected with each other only if the event occurs. So in doing so, information flows according to Figure 2.

ÔĽŅFigure 2 – Purchase of a home and affiliated options triggered by customer, allows for pulling through of labor and materials with information created up stream in the design stage with BIM through the supply chain network.

In summary, we are in the midst of the most exciting times for home building in the ¬†history of the United States. We are being confronted with razor thin¬†profit margins in a time that productivity is at rock bottom. In order to deal with single digit profit margins and high Sales General and Administration (S G & A) costs, we must automate our processes. This can be done with coordination of both design and material specifications through BIM. Once the data is formatted, it can then be passed to a builder’s admin system for both material and labor pricing and scheduling to construct a home. Of course, this transaction gets triggered by the online selection process by a home owner either with a designer and/or sales agent. Once we begin to emulate other industry’s ways to improve productivity, then we’ll see better profit margins in the future of home building. The future is bright!

One property I spoke with¬†increased their maximum pet weight limit from 25 to 50 lbs and gained 3 new tenants in the first week that normally would have been turned away.¬† Another property added an online furniture planning tool to their floor plans and¬†increased the average time spent online by over 300% (http://a.ifp.outhouse.net).

Interactive Floor Plans - Will my bed fit?

We all want our property to stand out differently than others (in a good way!), right?¬† We all believe, at one level or another,¬†”If I can implement a marketing tool or strategy unlike¬†any other property, I will gain more traffic and more tenants.”¬† We think this because for the most part it can be very true.¬† Or if you can¬†revise a common policy more lenient than another, maybe that will fill your¬†vacancies faster like it did by allowing a larger pet.¬†

Please share with us other clever strategies¬†or even the simplest ideas you have come across that have driven additional traffic to your property or website.¬†¬†And what¬†have you seen other properties implement that seem to be working?